Part Two of Two

[The Deck]

On the deck of the porch the stranger with the red flannel shirt is standing looking at the truck. Amery and Skip get out of the truck, Skip getting out the same side by Amery, not trusting his side, think as he looks back if that damn rat is still alive. Amery is holding his gun is his pocket tight, and Skip is limping about six inches to the right of his shoulders. They see the stranger, and he continues to stand there.

Skip: "That damn fool, he never moves much, I'll move him with a bullet up his ass."

As they get closer to the stranger, his sleeves are rolled up, his jacket off and he has tattoos on both his right and left arms, along with scars. Skip is drunk, and has a knife in his pocket, he is fondling it as he is walking. Now they are twenty feet in front of the stranger. The man is about six foot six, two hundred and fifty pounds.

The Stranger: "It's a horrible death to die with a rat bite," he comments to Skip, as they stand frozen in the dirt. Adding, "The booze will not help you. You best get to a hospital, and make peace with your maker."

Amery: "Who are you, some damn preacher, or the devil himself?"

The Stronger: "I come for the girl."

Skip: "What do you mean, you come for the girl, and we came back here for you. Or do you think we came all this way just to give her to you. Just how do you know we have a girl anyway? Amery, you got the gun I hope, he knows too much, we'll have to kill him also."

The Stranger: "I don't like waiting too long; the girl will die if you leave her as she is. Let her stay here and you can leave;" Amery looking at Skip now, shaking his head no.

Amery: "I never liked coming back here. I told you so, and I don't like this creepy guy..." --Skip looking indigent and nervously moving his knife in his pocket.

Amery now is looking at the stranger out of the side of his eyes, as he checks out Skips leg.

Amery: "It doesn't look good, you're going to need help soon?"

The Stranger: "I want the girl."

Skip: "I want the girl to, is that all you can say, 'I want the girl, I want the girl, fuck youuuuuuuu...shoot the crazy fuck, get rid of his big ass, we can bury him here [hesitation] Amery, are you sleeping."

The water from the Great Lakes start to drift up to their feet both Amery and Skip look, as it does, ---the waves are sounding louder, and the fog is getting thicker, almost hard to breath. The man now was not as nearer as he was before to them; he's farther to the east, toward the water. As Amery look back up from checking both the water and Skip's wound, and skip putting his eyes back to where the house was, the both were surprised to see the house was no longer there, plus now the stranger was three times farther away; both show signs of confusion.

The Tide

Amery: [Almost in tears] "What'll we do, the house is gone?" But the stranger was now even more to the East than a minute ago, so they both walked another fifty feet. The sound of the waves gets louder, and the light of the moon is starting to open up just a little. Again you can hear the sound of a boat; it was -this time--as if you were right next to it. The pain of the rat bite now is starting to annoy Skip, and he is sweating. His face is deeply sinking into its bone area, loss of color to his face, almost pink-white very pale life signs, and its reddish color.

He [Skip] seems to be ageing quickly with illness. As he starts to speak, the sounds of the waves drown his voice out, they are so loud he has to hold his hand over his ears, Amery has to hold on to him as the wind picks up and pushes them to and fro. They both look forward, a long glance and a huge wave hits them in the face, drags them like a rat into the water. Matter-of-fact, the wave looks like a rat. They hadn't realized it but they were actually in the water waiting for the current to come back to them. A wave of some twenty feet grabbed them, and another pulled them both out into the water, from underneath their feet. The only thing you can hear is the sound of the waves, 'help' sounds from their voices; the wind carries the 'help' echoes to the woods and through the dark shadows of the forest.

[The next Day]

Sergeant Thompson [Police Department]: "Good morning, Gloria, funny seeing you way up here so early, what you doing by this truck." In the front seat is a young girl with her feet and hands cut off, still alive. Gloria points to the front seat of the truck, Thompson looks, eyebrows down,

"What's up Gloria?"

Gloria [Detective for another police department, out of her jurisdiction]: "I called the hospital, you will not believe what happened. I found this girl; she's in shock in the front seat as you can see, hands and feet cut off; --looks like she'd been rapped off and on throughout her captivity,--unbelievable. She's evidently was with two guys I think this is the one from the Twin Cities, you know, the one kidnapped a week ago, but I can't find anything of them two guys. Not sure what happened to them. For some odd reason they stopped here, walked over to the lake, some of their cloths are there, I found a gun lying on the beach, a knife, and some cloths. I got them all in plastic bags in my car, I'll give the to you. Crazy, but I found nothing else. Not sure what made them abandon the truck; it looks like they would have gotten away with the crime, had they not come back. They must have had a reason. The truck is half full of gas. They have some wine under the passenger's side of the seat. The girl keeps saying something about a house and a stranger, but I couldn't find the stranger, and you and I know there are no houses within twenty-five miles of here."

The Sergeant goes and looks at the girl. She's about fifteen years old, bright red hair; creamy white completion, pretty, about 5'2".

The Sergeant: "What a shame. Not sure if I should even say this, but the waves were pretty high last night, do you think for some dumb reason, they got drunk, walked down to lake, went swimming, and got pulled out with the tide? You know, dumber things have happened?"

Gloria, with an ironical grin, she looks at him: "Sergeant, maybe that's the best was going to get. Unless she can tell us, if she lives to tell us."

Then as they finish them last words, the ambulance pulls up, takes the young girl out of the front seat of the truck.

The Sergeant: "Funny, the girl smiled when she saw that nice looking big guy bring her to the back of the ambulance [the medic], I wonder why [?] She acted as if she knew him."

Gloria: "He reminds me of Paul Bunion," [The mighty ax man of the north]. But then, this is his country, right." The Sergeant smiles but tries not to make too much of it, for a serious crime had been committed, yet it seems fate may have caught up with the assailants. The ambulance then pulls away, and so does Gloria in her car and the Sergeant in his.